Window frame



July 8, 1958 J. IAIXELROD WINDOW FRAME Filed March 21, 1955 INVENTOR.

JACOB AXELROD ATTORNEYS Ice Patented July 8, 1958 WINDOW FRAME JacobAxelrod, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Mid-States Aluminum Products 00.,Detroit, Mich.

Application March 21, 1955, Serial No. 495,552 2 Claims. (Cl. 189-75)This invention relates to window frames and more particularly to anouter frame formed of an integral nailing strip and drip strip, and inaddition, includes an inner sash frame having a novel corner joint.

I In the window arts, the window manufacturer fabricates a completewindow unit comprising an outer frame which is adapted to be secured tothe building structure surrounding the window opening, and inner sashwhich are slidable or otherwise mounted within the outer frame. Thisunit is then shipped to suppliers and builders for installation inhouses under construction.

In the present commercially sold windows, the outer frame is nailed orsecured to this building structure in some such other suitable manner,but in these types of connections, the outer frame is susceptible toleakage, that is, rainwater, and other types of moisture seep around theedges of the outer frame and drip into the inner sash frame and into theinside of the house adjacent the window opening.

In addition, these present window sash which normally comprise fourframe strips surrounding a piece of glass, or in some cases, a largepiece of foraminous material wherein the strips are joined at thecorners have normally been extremely weak and susceptible to twisting orbending. This invention contemplates providing a strong corner joint ofa novel construction wherein this twisting or bending, etc., of the sashis eliminated.

One object of my invention, therefore, is to provide an outer framehaving means integral with this frame to eliminate the seepage ofmoisture past the outer frame into the inside of the house. This objectis accomplished by providing an extruded or sheet metal bent form offrame having a nailing strip of considerable length parallel to theframe of the window which is adapted to be nailed or otherwise securedto the house structure adjacent the window opening. Integral with thisnailing strip, a drip strip normal to the nailing strip is providedwherein moisture drips around the nailing strip and then across the dripstrip to the external portion of the house rather than inside the house.

Another object of this invention is to provide corner joints for sashpanels wherein the side members forming the panels are extruded in theshape of an H with a pair of lugs or lug stripping integral with thewalls of the H in the lower channel thereof. A right angle corner memberis fitted within the space between the cross member of the H and thelugs and is rigidly secured in place by indentations in the H crossmember forced into suitable depressions formed inthe connective memberwherein an extremely tight and rigid corner joint is provided.

These and other objects of my invention will become apparent uponreading the following description of which the attached drawings form apart.

Referring to the drawings. in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a frame formed inaccordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken through the jamb illustrated inFig. 1 and is taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of one of the side members forming thewindow sash, and

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the corner joints formed between twosides of the panel sash.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the corner connector, per se.

The frame embodying my invention is preferably formed from an aluminumextrusion although other types of materials may be substituted for thealuminum and the frame may be fabricated through a process of bendingsheet metal rather than by the extrusion process.

Referring to the drawings, an outer frame generally designated as 1,having provisions for the mounting of sash 2 and 3 and possibly a screenframe 4 is mounted Within a Window opening 5 which opening is surroundedV by the building structure 6 of a dwelling house or some such similarstructure.

The outside of the house, in this case, is covered with siding 7although it is entirely possible to use brick, stucco, or other suchsuitable materials for the external portion of the house.

The outer frame 1 comprises a header member, a sill member and a pair ofjarnb members all joined together at the respective corners to form afour sided frame. For the purposes of inexpensive and simplefabrication, each of the above four members are identical incross-section, and therefore a description of any one of them in thefollowing disclosure will suffice as being a description of any of theothers.

Each of the frame forming members are provided with a nailing strip 11which is arranged in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of thewindow sash. Normal to this nailing strip and integral therewith is adrip strip 12 which extends towards the weather side of the window orthe outside of the house.

Where desired, a protuberance 13 may be provided at the junction of thestrips 11 and 12 for purposes to be described below.

The nailing strip 11 is secured to the house structure 6 surrounding thewindow opening 5 by means of nails, screws, or other such similar andsuitable fastening means 14. In order to accommodate these fasteningmeans the nailing strip may be'provided with a plurality of openingsthrough which the fastening means may be inserted.

The outer sheathing of the house, in the illustrated view, being slatsor such similar type sheathing, is abutted against the outside of thenailing strip soas to completely cover the nailing strip. In this case,the sheathing is placed against the protuberance 13 so as to be placedat an angle relative to the nailing strip to thereby provide an areathrough which moisture may pass between the nailing strip and the outersheathing.

Depending from the drip strip 12 is a front frame forming strip 20formed integral with the drip strip and bent or otherwise formed into achannel plate 21 which is arranged in substantial parallelism with thedrip strip. This channel forming plate 21 is formed with flanges whichform a pair of parallel sash holding channels 22 and 23 wherein a screenor other such type of foraminous material holding sash may be insertedin the channel 22 and a panel or sash 3 may be inserted in the channel23. Normally, the panel 3 is arranged to be rigidly held rather thanmovably held within the channel 23.

It may be noted that this particular embodiment illustrated is providedwith horizontally slidable windows wherein it is desirable to have onlyone of the window panels 2 slidable and the other panel 3 non-slidablein order to insure a tight joint which will resist leakage and may beeasily and cheaply weather stripped.

In addition to the above channels, a third channel 24 which is muchdeeper is formed by bending or otherwise extruding a portion of thechannel plate otfset relative to the plane of the plate itself and "thischannel 24 is provided to accommodate the slidable sash 2. One of thereasons for the. deepness ofthe channel 24 is to accommodate some sortof suitable weather stripping. One recommended type of weather strippingis that commonly used which consists of a plate inserted Within thechannel and retained therein by means of the flanges 25 and 26 formed atthe mouth of the channel and spring biased against these flanges bymeans of some sort of suitable resilient springing means. Thus, the sash2 rides upon a lower weather stripping and is abutted by an upperweather stripping and in addition abuts against weather stripping ateither jamb when the sash is either open or closed.

As seen in Fig. 2, adjacent the deep channel formed in the jamb is anextruded strip weather stripping holding channel 28 adapted to hold apiece of felt or other similar type weather stripping against the sash 2when the sash is closed.

The sash corner joint construction In my'window construction, I providewindow holding sash which are formed out of four identical side membershaving mitered ends which are abutted against one another and joined toone anotherto form a rigid framing to hold a glass panel. Each of thesemembers are designated as 30. The members 30 are extruded in the form ofa lower case h and as seen in Fig. 3 in crosssection are provided withside walls 31 and 32 and a cross-member 33. Directly above the crossmember are a pair of flanges 34 and 35 which form a means to hold theresilient window pane holding means 36 in position. The window paneholding means is formed of a suitable plastic or rubber and abuts thewindow panel 37 holding this panel against the side wall 31 so as toprevent movement relative to the frame.

Beneath the cross-member 33 on each of the walls 31 and 32 are provideda pair of lugs 38 and 39. These lugs may actually be an extrudedstripping along the side walls and face one another and in addition arespaced from the cross-member. Within the space between the cross memberand the lugs a corner connector 40 having legs 41 and 42 is inserted.The corner connector legs are of such a dimension as to be snugly fittedwithin the space formed between the cross member and the lugs and theupper surface, in the case of leg 42, abuts against the cross-member asseen in cross section in Fig. 4. The inside of each of the legs 41 and42 of the cross member is provided withdepressions which in Fig. areillustrated as being cuts extending across the width of the leg. Thesecuts 45 maybe formed as channels or in any other suitable form as mayappeal to the skilled mechanic having in view the objective which Ichoose to obtain with this type of corner connection.

Once the corner connector legs 41 and 42 are inserted into two adjacentends of the sash side members 30 and the ends are brought closelytogether so that their mitered portions form a 45 joint 46, the crossmember areas adjacent or contiguous with the depressed portion 45 on theconnector legs are indented or staked into these depressions. Thus, thelegs are prevented from being withdrawn from the member end and rigidlyare secured to these ends. As a result it can be seen that an extremelytight and close fitting rigid joint is formed between the two adjacentsash side forming members.

As can be seen from the above description, I have provided an outerframe which is extremely drip resistant due'to the formation of anintegral nailing strip with a drip strip and providing the nailing stripwith suflicient length to impede the flow of water between the strip andthe building structure. In addition, this formation is quite rigid sincethe nailing strip which extends at a for the entire outer frame.

. 4 right angle to the drip-strip forms a strengthening flange Inaddition, this frame is provided with channels suitable for containingweather stripping and which permits the free sliding of window sashtherein.

In addition, the sash used with this particular type of frame isprovided with an unusually rigid corner connection which makes possiblethe use of relatively thin gauge extrusions but which nevertheless hassuflicient strength to prevent warping, twisting, bending or otherdamage to this sash when the sash is in normal usage in a dwelling houseor some such similar structure.

Now having .fully described one operative embodiment of my invention, itis to be understood that this invention may be further developed withinthe scope of the attached claims without departing from the essentialspirit of said invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should betreated as being a description of one operative embodiment and not in astrictly limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A window frame for mounting within a wall opening for supportingwindow sash and comprising a header member, a sill member and side jambmembers joined together at their respective ends to form a four sidedframe having a central opening, and with the frame having a weather sideand a room side; each of said members being of the same cross-sectionwherein each member is formed with a fiat nailing strip extendingperipherally away from the central opening for laying flat over the walledge surrounding a wall opening, a drip strip integral with the nailingstrip and extending normally therefrom towards said weather side of theframe, a front frame strip integral with the drip strip end andextending into the frame central opening, and a channel plate integralwith the end of the front frame strip and extending towards the roomside of the frame and arranged substantially parallel to and spaced fromthe drip strip, the channel plate being provided with at least one pairof spaced flanges extending towards the central opening to form a sashsupporting channel between the flanges, and the channel plate beingindented, adjacent to and on the room side of said flanges, into theform of a groove, open towards, the frame central opening and formed ofside walls integral with the channel plate but extending outwardly ofthe central opening and a. base joined to the side walls to close theend of the groove remote from the frame central opening, the channelplate being provided with projections extending from said side walls andprojecting towards each other from the side walls to partially close theopen end of the groove wherein a window sash may be inserted into saidgroove between the projections and a weather strip plate may be heldwithin the groove by said projections and urged against said projectionsby a spring means positioned within the groove.

2. A construction as defined in claim 1 and wherein the junction betweenthe nailing strip and drip strip is formed as a protuberance extendingtowards the weather side of the frame so that a covering sheet laid overthe nailing strip with its end against the drip strip will be held outat an angle relative to the nailing strip by said protuberance.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

